Cypress Bay Sets Up Outdoor Learning Lab

Weston — Cindy Joseph always suspected her students would learn better if they could put the textbooks away and get some hands-on experience.

The teacher's plan has finally taken root, as students at Cypress Bay High School recently put the finishing touches on an outdoor learning lab.

They took an empty patch of grass in the front of the school and turned it into a landscaping project that re-creates parts of the Florida ecosystem.

"It gives me a place to get the kids outside and get them a little more excited about the environment," said Joseph, who teaches advanced placement environmental science and biology.

The project covers nearly a third of an acre at the school, which is at 18600 Vista Park Blvd. in Weston and also draws students from Davie, Southwest Ranches and Pembroke Pines.

With the help of professional landscapers, almost 70 canopy trees and 25 different species of plants were set in the outdoor classroom.

The key was to re-create three different Florida plant communities: a tropical hardwood hammock, pine flatwoods and a cypress swamp. It was up to the students to design their learning lab.

"They researched all the plants that are out here and they made up designs of where they thought they should grow," Joseph said. "They researched different Florida plant communities so they would know native plants, how they grow, where they grow and what kind of water they need."

The $10,000 project was completed with the backing of Kids Ecology Corps, an environmental group that works to educate youngsters.

Josh Kobasky of Davie, president of the school's Ecology Club, was one of the more than two-dozen students who helped with the planting.

"What you are learning about inside, you can actually see outside," said Kobasky, 17.

There are pond areas and three walkways leading to the outdoor meeting area. Plans are in the works to make the area handicapped accessible and add a butterfly garden.

The county's Public Works Department donated 140 truckloads of soil, and Weston donated the mulch.

Joseph said it would take between five and 10 years for the live oak, red maple, cypress, pine and gumbo-limbo trees to grow and create a hardwood hammock.

For more information, you can visit the Kids Ecology Corps Web site at www.kidsecologycorps.org.